Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced, Friday, during a televised interview with President Vladimir Putin, that Russia has completed the mobilization of 300,000 reserve soldiers in just over a month.
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“The task of recruiting 300,000 people has been accomplished,” Mr. Shoigu told Russian television, adding that 41,000 of them are already deployed in military units in Ukraine.
“There are no additional missions planned,” he said, noting that Russia does not plan to mobilize more reservists and civilians in the near future.
But he added that Russia continues to recruit volunteers and contract soldiers.
According to the minister, 218,000 reservists are being trained at Russian military bases, 41,000 are deployed in military units fighting in Ukraine, and another 41,000 are in the conflict zone but are still in training.
“I would like to thank everyone who joined the armed forces,” Putin said. “I thank you for this devotion to duty, for this patriotism.”
The Russian president, like his minister, has once again acknowledged the failures of this mobilization, which has seen many unrecallable people per se find themselves immersed as well as lacking in equipment.
But Mr Shoigu confirmed on Friday that all equipment problems had now been “resolved”.
On September 21, the Russian president had announced the mobilization of 300,000 reservists, therefore civilians, to reinforce his lines, while the Ukrainian army forced Russian forces to withdraw in several areas of the front, particularly in the northeast and south. .
The announcement displaced an indefinable crowd of Russians who fled the country for fear of being sent to fight.
Russia also demanded the annexation of the four regions in eastern and southern Ukraine where almost the entire front line is located.